The Thing About Mutton
by AmberJeanie
Summary: The 10th Doctor considers the word 'mutton' as he tries to figure out why Donna seems upset with him. Part of my 750 Words series


"Mutton, That's a funny word, isn't it?" The 10th Doctor asked as he pulled levers and pushed buttons on his Tardis control panel. "Donna, isnt't 'mutton' an odd word?" He looked around the console at his red headed companion. "I mean, it's just really strange the way it comes out of your mouth. Mutton, mutton, mutton, mutton, mutton." The Doctor continued to flip switches and twist knobs as he tried out many different ways of saying 'mutton'. "You should really try this Donna, it is quite fun." He looked around the console again to find Donna gripping the edge and glaring at him. He was sure he should know why she seemed to be in such a bad mood but it slipped his mind at the moment so he just went back to his lever pulling, button pushing, switch flipping, and knob twisting. As he did he started thinking of how nice it would be if he had someone else who could fly the Tardis with him at the moment because he would much rather be using his full brain to ponder the word mutton rather than only part of it, but such was life.

"You know button is almost the same as mutton, you just have to switch the m to a b and you would have it but it doesn't seem as strange." He twirled to the other side of the Tardis console and continued his pulling, pushing, flipping, and twisting there after pushing Donna out of the way. He got the feeling she wanted him to keep working on the Tardis so work on the Tardis he would.

"I wonder if the difference is that button is not an odd word to hear." He looked up at Donna where she was now clinging to the railing around the center console. "Maybe you wouldn't hear it so often but it is not something one would be surprised to hear in normal conversation." He paused and took in the glare that Donna continued to aim at him before going back to the console, she was being insistent wasn't she? At least she wasn't talking, which was a little strange, normally when Donna was mad she would waste no time to let everyone in the vicinity know, the Doctor was sure that she could almost yell loud enough that the whole galaxy around them would know when Donna Noble was angry.

"So button is not all that strange but mutton is. Have you ever thought that before? That changing one letter could change so much about a word?" The Doctor calmed his voice while still messing with the Tardis console. "It's kind of like space and time, it only takes one little tweak to change something big." He worked quietly for a moment.

"Maybe mutton being a strange word has nothing to do with how it is spelled and everything to do with what it means. I mean, not everyone eats mutton on a regular basis and maybe it concerns them that it is meat from sheep. I mean many people think of sheep as cute little fluffy animals so it would be quite disturbing to eat them." Moving past Donna the Doctor started working on another panel of controls. "And many people don't see much of a difference between sheep and lambs. Lambs of course being very cute and sheep being . . . .well, not quite as cute." Another glance at Donna could tell the Doctor that she had just about reached her limit of time spent being quiet so he tried to work even faster on the Tardis controls.

"It's not surprising that mutton seems like such a strange word if you think of mutton as a baby sheep, lambs are just adorable and it isn't noce to think of eating something so precious. But mutton isn't lamb meat, it's sheep meat, so it shouldn't be so strange." The Doctor pondered that for a moment as he continued his lever pulling, button pushing, switch flipping, and knob twisting still.  
"You know, I guess it doesn't really matter what the word actually means, if everyone, or just about everyone thinks of it as a cute little lamb cut up and cooked on their plate, that is what they think, whether of not it's actually a cute little lam-"

"I Don't Care If Mutton Is A Cute Little Lamb Or A Bloody Ugly Sheep! Would You Fix The Bloody Time Machine So I Can Stop Feeling Like I Am On A Bloody Roller Coaster?!" The Doctor stopped his tampering and stared at Donna as she gripped the railing to keep from getting thrown around the room as the Tardis lurched. So that's what she was so angry about. He pulled one last cord which was hanging from the ceiling and the Tardis stopped its lurching.

"There was no need to shout." He said simply. Donna just shot him another glare and stalked off to another part of the ship.


End file.
